Benediction
by Chiharu-Chan
Summary: FIN. Postanime. Wrath can't understand why he's still alive, or why he has to put up with an insane blonde mechanic to fix the secondhand automail. Life of a theaf is crazier than being a homunculi. [Wrath x Winry]
1. Ch1

_"Mom..." The small boy stirred, opening lilic purple eyes. "Where is... Gate... Mom?" _

The blond had smiled, setting the tray off water down. "You're awake." 

"I'm..." He raised his right hand to shield the light, blinking. "It's... Metal...." 

"It's an automail." The girl corrected, taking a seat on the foot of his bed. 

"I know that!" He snapped, glaring. "But I don't have an automail arm... I have... Ed's arm... I...." He halted, suddenly trying to sit up. "Where am I?!" 

"You're... Just Relax." 

"NO! Where am I!?! Tell me where I am!!!" He nearly shrieked, only to be pushed down. "Tell me!!! Where am I?! Why am I here?! Why do I have an automail arm!?!!" 

"Damn-it!" The next thing he knew, there was an unusual amount of pain on his head. The girl was looking grumpy, holding a trench in her hand. "Will you just calm down and listen to me?!" 

.................................. 

Don't own FullMetal Alchemist 

**Benediction**

By: Kitori Chiharu 

One of Four 

................................. 

Wrath sighed, fixing the screw on his leg. Lina sent him an unamused look, folding her arms together. He got a bad felling that there was a speech coming soon. 

"You know..." Very soon. 

"Why don't you just go that your stupid mechanic and get that thing fixed?" The older girl demanded, brushing a strand of chestnut hair behind her eyes. "You're gonna be pulling on our leg." 

"I'm _fine_." Wrath rolled his eyes. "And there's nothing wrong with stealing automail parts, it's easier that way." 

"No." The female bandit sighed. "It would be _much_ easier to go your mechanic and get a new one. Those spare parts you managed to snag are lose and random, you don't even know how to work it!" 

"Fine, you do it then!" The boy let out a sigh and aspiration, spreading his leg out. His back leaned against the wall, mumbling. "Since you're the chief of operation and so smart, I want to see you do it!" 

"Damn-it." Lina groaned, kneeing down. She abruptly ruffled his hair. "Listen, we're staying for at least a week or two here for plotting. Your stupid automails are too short for you anyway, so go to your mechanic and get it _fixed_. I don't see why you're so afraid to go see him." 

She just doesn't get it. "First of all, my mechanic is a she, and we're not on the best of terms right now." Wrath grumbled under his hair. 

"Don't make that cute face at me!" She demanded. "You know I can't stand it!" 

"Fine.... Fine, I'll go see a mechanic. Are you happy now, Kaitou-sama?" 

"No, I want you to go see _your_ mechanic." Lina stood up, looking outside the window. The scenery of the busy city reflected back at her. "Those are some fancy parts, I don't want to get it messed up. Besides, it helps when you're on a heist, and I don't want you to change metal." 

"Is it your duty to make me miserable or something?!" Wrath rolled his eyes, pulling the leg of his jeans down. 

.................. 

Wrath found himself staring at the train. He turned around, taking one last chance at pegging. "Please don't make me go?" 

Clara shook her head as Lina shrugged. "No, just go." 

"But I-" 

"GO!" She kicked him onto the train. 

........................ 

He wasn't exactly sure what to do. For one thing, he hasn't gone back to been back to the town since... Well, since he left. And besides, how in the world was he suppose to find that crazy girl in the first place? 

Wrath groaned in desperation, hand covering his face. "I _so_ don't have time for this." 

He took a deep breath, pushing the angst back for a minute or two. The boy calmly walked up to a farmer near the crops, weak smile on his face. "Ah, excuse me. Do you know where I can find an automail mechanic?" 

"Ah, you must mean Winry!" The mean beamed. "Here, just keep on walking down the path until-" 

He turned right, left again, and found himself standing in front of a crust yellow house. The sigh of 'Rockbell Mechanic' was clearly pasted on the front. He considered knocking, really, but it just wasn't his style. 

Lucky enough, he didn't have to. By the time he walked up the third step, the door was opened by a some-what sort women. She eyed him slowly, adjusting the pipe in her mouth. "You're here, I've been waiting." 

"Eh?" 

"She's in the basement, just take the stairs down." 

Wrath didn't bother asking, the women was freaky enough. He did as told, and suddenly realize how wrong that decision was. The boy suddenly found himself in deep shit when he entered the basement. 

The door behind him closed. 

The sound of drilling entered his ear, and he managed to get down the stairs without going deaf. There was a blond girl working at the counter, electric device in hand and google on. She turned around and suddenly turned the machine off, silence registering in his head. 

"Eh, hi?" He smiled weakly. "Winry Rockbell, right?" 

"And you're Wrath, still alive." The blond grinned, taking her goggle off. "I knew you'd come back, no one can walk away from the amazing beauty of my mechanism." 

"I just wanted to know if you can upgrade my automail." 

"Ah, but now you're back, it's not that simple." Winry tapped her foot on the cement ground. "First of all, I never ask for payment for your original set. But I see that you've been doing... Well, I'm gonna have to ask you to pay the upgraded pair." 

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." He shrugged, then paused. "How did you know I have money?" 

**SMASH**. The screwdriver connected with Wrath's face, he fell backwards on his butt. He looked up, blinking. "What was that for?" 

"You think I didn't know about your dayjob?!" Winry was now standing over him, evil smirk on her face. "I saw the last heist and knew it was you. Did you think I wouldn't recognize the balance and sound of my own creation?!" She smacked him in the head with the drill. "How dare you use my automail to steal stuff?!" 

"If it makes you feel any better." The boy mumbled, rubbing his face. "I'm stealing the stuff on my own, and your stupid automail is giving me a bunch of problems." 

"Is it?!" She tiled her head, hair swinging around. "Good." 

"You're just lucky I can't kill you because I need you to fix this thing." Wrath mumbled. 

"And since when did you become a thief?" It was a change to the conversation, really. Winry suddenly had an interested on her face. "Of course, I knew my automail was up to the task. After all, it's the best in the country and-" 

"Okay, you can shut up now." Wrath got up, jerking the lose ends of his automail off. 

"And why did you think I'd help you, being a homunculi and all?" 

"Woman, you're the one who added it, I expect you to paying repsonsibility for sacking a pair of metal limbs on me, okay?" 

"Hey, thoes automail saved your life! Or at least it made it much easier." 

"But they were second-handed from Elric..." Wrath muttered. 

He was smacked in the face with her shoe. 

------------**TBC**------------ 

This is, obviously, after the anime. I don't know what the heck I was thinking, but in the last episode when Pinako mentioned that Winry gave Wrath automail arm and legs that was originally Ed's, something in my brain just snapped. So the gate took back Ed's arm and leg from Wrath, and Winry only needs to use the same ones she had for Ed. 

Okay, that was a bit of spoiler. 

Anyways, this may be one of those weird mood-swings in pairings, but Wrath is just sooooo cute. 

Review, please? 


	2. Ch2

"You think he's doing okay?" Clara looked up from her cup of coffee. 

Lina carelessly waved it off, adjusting her thin glasses. "No problem. The kid knows how to take care of himself, so there's no point to worry. Now let's get back on the map. What do you think of route six?" 

"You're trying to change the subject." Lighting pointed out, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "It's hard to plot any kind of escape rout without our break-in specialist. 

"Let's not start this again." Lina groaned. "I told you, he need to get those junks fixed, so I sent him to the mechanic. If you're gonna act with a stick up your arse, then just shut up." 

"Hey, hey." Eli raised his hand, pushing his beanie back. "No fighting, let's get back to plan. The kid's flexible, he'll be find with whatever escape route you plan up. Right, Clara?" 

Clara took another sip of her coffee, keeping her sight on the window in front of them. "Maybe that's what I'm worried about." 

"You're worried about Wrath?" Lighting poked his head up, blinking. 

"How can you not be?" Lina shrugged. "The kid's too cute for his good." 

"And reliable." Clara added, pushing her blond bangs out. "It's just that he gets attached to people easily, and there's always the time when he acts too innocent. It makes me feel like... If we let him leave, he'll get attached to someone else, and we'll lose the best agilist we ever had." 

"This isn't about his skills." Eli grinned. "He's just so easy to love." 

"Too true." 

... 

Disclaimer: Don't own FMA 

**Benediction**

Two of Four 

By: Kitori Chiharu 

... 

Wrath watched as the blond girl adjusted the wooden automail to his limbs, quietly mumbling. 

"Okay." Winry stood up, laying the screw on the bed next to her. "This is only temporary, but you'll be able to move around..." She paused. "If you want." 

"I'm not going anywhere." The homunculi replied flatly, letting his bangs fall into his eyes. 

"Well, you can't stay here all day." Winry replied, putting the material back into her toolbox. "You have the worst social skills ever, try to hang around town... Or something." 

"I have no where to go." He repeated, looking up at the ceiling. "And I'm not exactly the most favorite villager here." 

"You're not a favorite _anywhere_." The girl pointed out, rolling her eyes. 

"We're not starting an argument over this." The boy declared, swinging the leg a few times around, testing. 

Winry smiled. "No, we shouldn't. That wouldn't be wise." She paused. "Is there something you had in mind? You know, a place you want to go?" 

"No." He grunted. 

"Okay, whatever." The mechanic shrugged, heading toward the door. "Just don't mess around with my tools, I'll be in the basement." She gave him a quick wave. 

"Wait!" Wrath yelled back. "When will you finish?" 

Winry paused, turning around. She pressed a hand to her head, blinking. "Depends on how much you pay." 

"A week?" 

"Four days, tops." She smirked. 

...

Wrath never understood the purpose of human nature; after all, he was still a homunculi. He never asked for the limits of humanity, or their ability to accept others. He didn't know a lots of things, really. 

Hn frequently found himself wondering what would happen if he _was_ human. Would he still have had such a pointless existence? Probably not. To some extent, he _had_ been human, he just didn't have any memory with it. 

Did it really count that he had been human for one or two moments in his life? 

_He remembered the shocked look on her face. "Wrath... What did you do?" She was frozen to the ground. _

He looked up, frowning. "Mom?" 

"You attached yourself to her... You have the cinders with you... Why?" 

"I..." 

"Cinder?" 

"That was... Mother's ashes..." The younger Elric turned to stare at his brother. "You took mother's ashes out, Onii-san! WHY, Nii-san!" 

Wrath stared at the grave in front of him. Trisha Elric's grave. He wondered if the villagers knew that her ashes were no longer underneath the built up of these overtime dirt, or that it was lost during the fighter to stop Sloth. 

Sloth. Since when had he acknowledged the fact that she wasn't his mom? It didn't matter, because nothing really mattered then. 

Was this really how he had expected it to end? Not really. He never pictured himself returning to this town two years later; then again, he never pictured himself being surrounded by humans either. 

"Why are you staring at that?" 

Wrath blinked, returning back to reality. He turned around in time to see Winry behind him, hands clad in bouquets of flowers. She leaned down on the grave a few feet away, carefully laying the flowers down. 

"What are you doing?" 

The blond smiled slightly, looking up. "Visiting, what does it look like? What are _you_ doing?" 

"Shouldn't you be working on my automail!" Wrath suddenly burst out, frowning. 

Winry paused, blinking slightly. "Why are you so moody?" 

"I'm not." 

"Yes, you are." She put her hand onto her hips. "The fact that you act too much like Ed is freaking me out." The homunculi had to pause and wonder, was that an insult? 

"I-" 

"Whatever, I'm leaving now." Winry waved it off, pulling slightly on the hem of her skirt before heading off. She gave him a questionable look. "You coming?" 

"I... No." Wrath, Winry noticed, was slowing eyeing the grave. 

"Okay." The girl shrugged, carelessly walking down the hills. Wrath made sure that she had already made her way out of the cemetery before adverting his attention back in front of him. Why did he cared, anyway? 

His life as a Homunculi was well over; and, as much as he hated to admit this, he liked his new life. It meant insane heists and even scarier women to put up with, but everything was so adventure-like. He longed for the feeling of being free, it was something he had lost after the last battle with Elric. 

The sky was starting to darken. 

Maybe he was just contradicting his situation, but Wrath didn't want to face these kind of things. Some part of his system told him to forget everything he had encountered with the Homunculus, but... How could he do that without lying to himself? 

This was why he hated the feeling of being human, all these pain and suffering he had to grasp, it wasn't fair. Humans were useless, uncared for, and they had too much emotion. Sometimes Wrath wondered if he was still a homunculi anymore, there certainly wasn't any physical difference besides the lost limb. He could still freely manipulate his body into wild stunts, he just couldn't preform alchemy without Elric's limbs. 

In the end, whose fault was all this? Izumi for creating and then discarding him? The Elric brother for throwing away their body? His own, for ever believing that there had ever been any point to his existence? 

Wrath turned back to the headstone, slowly kneeing down. This was the last thing he had to do before cutting off all relations of his old life. He laid his head down, hair falling into his eyes. 

He bowed down. "I'm sorry..." If any one of these people could him hear him, would they have forgiven him? 

He bowed down again. "I'm sorry." If he was to bow before this gravestone all night, would any of them understand the pain and misery he felt now? How it hurt to know he was alone? 

"I'm sorry." Soft drizzles of rain fell on him. 

"I'm sorry." If he was to say the same phrase over and over again, would anyone take the time and try to accept his angst all over again? 

The rain was getting heavier, pounding onto his back. 

"I'm sorry." If Trisha Elric really was that loving mother the Elric brothers adored, would she forgive him for all those horrible deeds he did to her in afterlife? Would she have forgotten all about him too, like she did with her own sons? Or would she have loved him as well? 

The ground was slippery, and he was completely wet. His hair was overly damped, blocking out all images of his view. It was just like this last time. 

_ "Hey kid, what are you doing here?" Wrath looked up when he stopped feeling the beating of raindrops on his back. There was a girl in front of him, holding up an umbrella. She looked truly worried. _

"Go away." He managed to mumble, looking back at the grave. 

The girl leaned down next to him, throwing her umbrella away. Wrath stared at her in disbelief. "What are you doing!" 

The blond only smiled in return. "I want to know why you find that piece of headstone so fascinating, will you tell me? See, I had been watching you for a good hour now, and you barely moved from staring at it." She was starting to get wet as well. 

"Go away." He repeated, pointed to her umbrella on the ground. "Take your stuff and leave me alone." 

"I can't." She replied softly. "Because I can't stand someone being hurt like this, why won't you go home?" 

"I don't have a home." Wrath replied flatly, pulling his knees in. He stared blankly at the headstone of the grave. "I have no where to go, leave me alone." 

"Why are you staring at the grave?" She repeated. 

"GO AWAY!" He stared up at her, fuming. There were uncontrollably water falling out of his eyes, slipping onto his cheek. It tasted salty, more than the rain. 

She shook her head. "Come with me." 

"What?" 

"Come with me." She smiled good naturally, slowly unzipping the front of her jacket. He would make out some sort of alchemy circle, a blinding flash of light, and then... Unconsciousness. 

"Are you crazy!" A strong pair of arms pulled him up, holding onto his back. Wrath turned around weakly before sighing. Again with the blonde hair. 

"Get up!" Winry yelled at him. "Why are you still outside in the rain!" 

A slow smile came to him at the irony of it all. The only thing his brain could comprehend was the single words. "Go away." 

The blonde mechanic stared at him. Then, out of nowhere, she pulled her hammer out and violently smacked him in the head. 

_He could remember waking up in an unfamiliar room, smells of cleanness filling his senses. There was a soft light coming from the door, and voices. _

"So you just brought some stray kid in. I appreciated your sudden interest in kindness, Clara, but don't you think this is kind of... I don't know, disrupting to our line of work?" A sarcastic female voice spoke up. 

"Oh, come on." The voice of the blond girl spoke up. "He's just lost... So..." 

"He's a homunculi." A male voice cut in. "We can't keep him." 

"A what?" Another male voice filled the hall. 

"Artificial human being. He's not... Normal. I hope you understand that taking him in would be a serious stunt to our plan. Besides, we're not the homeless shelter, we don't take in lost people." 

"I guess... That kind of makes sense..." 

"No, it doesn't!" The sarcastic female spoke up. "You just don't want to keep him because you're such a cynic, and for all the wrong reasons. You know what? Now I want to keep him." 

"You're just siding that way because you always have to disagree with me." 

"So?" 

"So, can't you understand?" The young man declared rather loudly. "He's an artificial human! He's a freak, a beast, an animal! Besides the fact that it's against our plans, it's not safe to be around someone like that!" 

"HELLO!" The female voice yelled back. "Incase you haven't noticed, none of us are normal! You control one of the five natural disaster sources, Clara and Eli are two of the top non-official alchemists, and I mess with people's mind! None of us are 'normal', so you have no right to say that about the kid!" 

"You're defending someone you don't even know!" The male voice snapped. "Why can't you just agree with me!" 

"Because I'm right. And the kid's cute, so we're keeping him!" 

"YOu-" 

"Eh.. Clara? Should we stop them?" 

Wrath could see the blonde sigh from the crack in the door. "No... They'll be done in an hour or two." 

Wrath stared blankly at the ceiling. Winry frowned at him. "I didn't know Homunculus get sick." 

He turned sideway on the bed, adjusting his head to look at her. "Why am I still alive?" 

The girl blinked, reaching up to feel his forehead. "Why are you talking nonsense? You don't have a fever or anything..." 

"No, tell me." A sick and weak smile came to his face. "Tell me why I'm still alive." 

**TBC**

Whoot. Two more chapters to go. >. Remember that Clara is the real idenity of PISREN, the thief. She's pretty cool, and he's not a made-up character either. 

Reviews, please? 


	3. CH3

**Benediction**

Chapter three of four

_By Kitori Chiharu_

Pinako paused, watching Winry as she closely closed the door. The blonde signed, running a hand through her hair. "I'm worried about that child."

Winry blinked, looking up. "Who-him?"

"How is he?"

The blonde mechanic reached for the doorknob. "He's... Okay. He has a fever, though."

"Humon-"

"Yeah, well." Winry pressed a finger to her lips, silencing the woman. She nodded towards the door. "Whatever human part of him left is acting up. Why else would he visit Trisha-san's grave?"

Pinako Rockbell kept silent, eyeing the the small frame on the fireplace mantle. The picture of the young Elric brothers with their mother, Winry, and Pinako in a Christmas photo sat there. "I see."

_

* * *

He blinked, watching as Lina fiddled with her pen. She looked up, grinning at the boy. "Do you need something?" _

"Eh..." Wrath moved over to her shyly, peering over her paper. "Yeah... I just wanted to tell you that I'll be leaving... So, yeah. Um, tell the nice lady thanks."

Lina stared at him.

Wrath paused. "So, um. Yeah." He turned around, ready to leave.

"Yo!"

It was almost as an instinct sense, but he immediately twirled around as Lina had flown her pen at him, catching it in midair."

The girl looked impressed. "Kid, sit down."

"Uh?"

"Sit down." The brunette repeated herself, patting the space on the bench next to her. Unwillingly, the boy agreed. "First of all, her name is Clara, not 'The nice lady'. Secondly, you're not leaving."

"Uh?" Wrath blinked again.

"I know you heard our argument the other day." Lina replied. "Quite frankly, it's not as simple as 'let's keep the stray kid'. We're bandits; we don't normally show our true identity a lot. And if someone knows, we either rip his mouth off or send him to an early grave."

"Wha?" Wrath squeaked in a childish voice.

"You have pretty good reflexes. With those automails, I can probably help you perfect it." The girl started scribbling down on a fresh piece of paper. "Your movements are haste, though."

"How is he?"

Wrath looked up to see the remaining three parties standing at the door. Lighting had a slightly grim expression on his face, arms folded. Clara and Eli were behind him, smiling reassuringly.

"Ah-ha!" Lina looked up, setting her pen down. "If he work hard enough, we can increase his speed and agility by 125, strength by 47, and reflexes by 89!"

"Woh." Eyebrows raised in surprised, Eli smirked. "That's pretty good."

Clara smiled at Lighting.

"Whatever." Lighting turned his heels, heading out. "He can stay. Just make sure he doesn't break anything."

* * *

Winry sat down on the chair. "You're awake."

"I think only abnormal people can accept me." Wrath sat up, pulling his knees in a sitting position. Shoulders slacked down, he grinned like a little boy.

"Oh?" Winry crossed her legs, leaning on her elbows. "Why would you say that?"

"You're only being nice to me because I'm paying you; it's nothing I'll misinterpret." The youngest Homunculi shrugged. "There aren't a lot of people who are good to me for naturalistic reasons."

"Ed and Al were good to you."

"Yeah." Wrath laughed in an almost demeaning way. Winry suddenly had a slight indication that the boy was truly a homunculi. "Until he realized that I stole his arm." Reaching up, he pulled his sleeves down, revealing the auto mail.

"I realize that humans are never fully satisfied until they have everything. Edward Elric had his own family, people who cared about him. So what if I had his fucking arm! I'd be glad to trade it for people who cared of me."

"You didn't have to turn yourself into a Homunculi" Winry spoke up slowly, keeping a unexplainable glance on him.

"Che, you'll never understand." He smirked at his hand, slowly balling his fist as the metal material made a clashing sound. "I'm just a random kid turned over to the Gate. But to have the power of manipulating it...It makes you more and more power hungry until you finally snap."

"You-"

"And then that voice in the back of your head whispers. 'I want more, more, more!' And then what? Humans' perfections are boring." Wrath chuckled in an innocent way. It was quite a disturbing sight, the image of a teenage boy snarling about contrasting matters in such a simple way.

"There were people who cared about you, though." Winry replied softly.

"Maybe." He shook his head, bangs fallen upon his eyes. "But would you really understand? Given, you work with people who have perfected alchemy, but you're just another human."

"I'll never look at things the way you do." The blonde girl smiled slightly, eyeing her finger as it traced against the smooth surface of her coffee mug. "But it's still better if you talk about it-"

"… Wrath. They call me Wrath."

"Alright." She grinned. "And they call me Winry."

"I know who you are." He replied easily, folding his arms with a slight pout. "Env… They once tried to pass as you, and Mo… She said that you were friends with the Elrics, so you were already an automatic target."

"It sounds like you had a plan to kill me or something." Winry replied, cautiously noticing the way he phrase the homunculus.

"You'd sleep better if I didn't tell you the rest."

"Alright." Winry laughed, leaning back in her seat. "I didn't want to ask at first, but how did you get into the theft business? And with PISIREN too? Funny, I always though she worked solo, and now she has a whole crew with her."

"Theft isn't as easy as people imagine." His voice suddenly lightened. "It's not just 'hey, let's break into the store and take whatever'. We have to carefully plan everything and extra escape routes. Besides, only the ones in top condition can be the break-in specialist." He shrugged. "I guess it was because of the automail."

Winry suddenly radiated a glow of pride like no other. "Should you be telling me all this? What if I slip to the police?"

"Considering the fact that you almost helped in forbidden alchemy, I don't think the police force would consider your advice very charming."

"I-"

"Don't worry." Wrath grinned. "I'm not stalking you. L… My friend did a full-on research on my mechanic before letting me come to get the automail fixed."

"I see." Winry smiled. "Are they nice?"

He blinked. "Who?"

"Your friends; the theft crew." She grinned, taking another sip of her coffee. "You speak really fondly of them, at least."

"Oh." He suddenly grinned again. "They're really cool. Even though they treat me like a kid, I still get to do a lot of fun things with them when we're off the job."

"Sound nicer than my job."

Wrath scrunched his nose. "You work with metals for a living, so I don't know if that's much of a compliment or not."

"I guess not." Winry smiled, brushing another strand of hair past her cheek. It seems that Wrath was feeling better already. "Well, I've got more work to finish. Your new automail will be done by tomorrow." She stood up, heading for the door way.

"Hey…."

Winry blinked, turning around.

"Where are they now?"

She smiled slightly, eyes cast on the floor. "They're around."

"Oh…" Wrath paused, blinking. "Well. If you see them… Can you tell them that-"

"The kid grew up." She smiled. "I know. He's not so bratty anymore; you can rest in peace as an alternative older brother."

**Free talk**

For anyway that's wondering about the sudden increase of Wrath vocabulary, be reminded that this story takes place a year after the ending of the anime. If my mind is working correctly, Winry and Ed were fifteen in the beginning, right? Well, Rose had a baby in the duration of the anime, so that means _at least _one year has passed already. So Winry should be seventeen or eighteen in this fic, and Wrath would be… Well, two years older than he already was. I'm not sure if he was human to start with when he first appeared on the island, but if homunculus are not to age physically, then how did Wrath turn from a baby to… Not a baby?

And yeah, I know about the movie. Only, I'm not sure exactly _when_ it takes place, so I can't put Ed and Al into the scene either. Personally, that's really not much of a hassle since they weren't originally designed to be.

Yeah, just food for thought.

Anyone who has any idea who they're talking about in the last few lines deserves a cookie.


	4. CH4

**Benediction**

**Chapter four of four**

**Fullmetal alchemist is copyrighted to Hiromu Arakawa, VIZ, FUNimation, etc. I do not own anything except for the fan-fiction story line and the OC characters.**

"I'm leaving."

"It's six in the morning." Winry paused, rubbing her eyes.

"I need to head out early for my train." Wrath shrugged. "I don't feel like imposing on you anyway. It's not as if we're actually friends or something."

The blonde paused. "Do you _want_ me to be your friend?"

"I don't need fake compassions to live." Wrath smiled slightly. "I'm just here. I might not be able to perform alchemy anymore, but I'm still Wrath. I've never been anything else. I won't change."

"That's a nice philosophy." Winry smiled. "I spent a good part of my life convincing them not to force change. You should just go with the flow, right?"

Wrath paused. "Why are you saying these things to me?"

"You might not be the real son of Trisha-san, but you're still you, right? You said it yourself." The girl sipped onto her coffee mug. "You're still Izumi-san's blood relative. You were born in this village, so you're still one of us. I don't care what you've done before because there's no point in living in past."

"Yeah." Wrath muttered, smiling slightly. "There's no point to live in the past. Good advice, you should take it yourself."

"Well, you know. I try to." She stretched in her seat, looking out the window. "The world's filled with so many mysteries. Alchemy is just one way we humans try to solve them. Yet, with the production of all this, in the end, science is the only thing that can grant our wishes. I never wanted to learn alchemy, yet I only got tangled back into it. You can't help these things."

"Winry?"

"Huh?"

"You're a good person. They're lucky to have you as a friend."

"I'd like to be friends with you, too." She winked. "But, you know, boys like you can't possibly understand the way my mind works."

"Friends." Wrath's eyes softened. "It's such a great thing."

Winry paused.

"They're the only things I can't possibly understand. The existence of humans can all be accounted for at one time or another. You can understand how, why and for what reason someone is born, but you can't explain such a simple thing called friendship." Wrath paused, looking at his automail arm.

"If everything could be explained in some degree, then the world wouldn't be so complicated." Winry sighed. "The government, the will of the people and alchemy. I don't think anyone can ever explain this and relate it all to full circle."

"I guess not." Wrath paused.

"Our existence can't be defined into terms." The mechanic sighed. "The things we do, who we are and how we live. We might not be remembered after our death, but we still have the will to move on. Why is it that we always find the things in the last place we took for?"

The boy fell quite. "Because then we stop looking. I spent my life as homunculi, yet all I ever wanted to be was a human. It's so tragic, isn't it?"

"Hey." Winry smiled. "You're here, alive and breathing. So it's all good, isn't it?"

"I suppose."

"You're a good kid, Wrath. I don't think anyone can ever hate you."

"Do you think they hate me?"

"Who? Ed and Al?" She smiled. "They can never bring themselves to hate someone. Even if your existence is a burden to them, they can never wish for someone to be hurt."

"Do you think Mom hates me?"

Winry paused. "I don't think Izumi-san has quite forgiven herself yet. But I know that she sure doesn't hate you."

"No, I'm not talking about her." Wrath whispered. "Sloth… Trisha Elric spent her life dedicated to her sons. She said that such unconditional love was something she would not stand in past life. Yet, why do you think it is that she took care of me? Was it that they were too good for her, so she chose me instead?"

"Trisha was a good woman." Pinako spoke up, emerging from the door in her night cloth. "She took great care of her sons. Even if being homunculi changed her perspective on motherhood, she cannot just throw away these motherly instincts. It's the same to being alive."

"Am I really alive?"

"Your presence is accounted for." Winry smiled. "Isn't that enough? You have people who care about you. Isn't that all you ever need to survive?"

"I don't know. Is it?"

"You question yourself too much." Pinako sucked on her pipe. "Someday, these answers will come to you when you least expect it. For now, you just have to move on."

"But how can I be at peace with myself if I don't even understand…" Wrath trailed off. "I don't even understand why I'm alive!"

The Rockbell women exchanged looks.

"You're alive because you were once cared for." Winry smiled. "You're still cared for. Even if you doubt the love from the people around you, it's still there. Even if they won't admit it, it's still there. Heck, I'll be the first to admit it, if it makes you feel better. You're a good kid. I'm glad you're still here."

"I-"

"Run along." Pinako declared. "Don't you have a train to catch? I'd hate for you to stay another few days for missing the train."

"Eh. Thanks." He headed out the door, taking one last look at the blonde girl, who was still grinning, before smiling himself.

He wasn't sure why he was alive. But he was here, and it was all good. Maybe that was the benediction he was granted with. At least now, he has someone else to come back to.

**Freetalk**

Okay, so I started writing this over a year ago. I thought of this as one of my small projects in dedication to my finishing the anime series. Well, it turned into something painstaking to write. Wrath isn't as easy to portrait as many people think, and I manage to hold up until to finish this.


End file.
